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Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Reviewing galleries, I'm pretty sure this Torpedo is from the early 60's, as is the watch. Not sure how to tell an 18 from an "a" or "b" version yet however.

I enjoyed the film, but as I've heard elsewhere, "Skyfall" was better. I liked, but am a bit conflicted about, the hodgepodge (or mashup, as the kids have it) they made of the Blofeld origin story. I was glad of the references to the books but it was a bit of a "too-small-world" for my liking. Obviously they can't use the original - he'd be over 90 years old. I suspect it matters more to readers of the books than it would to the film-only fans. I confess that I get a kick out of seeing the same phenomenon among Harry Potter fans. At least it's something to relate to.

I keep saying, to the point that my wife and friends are probably tired of hearing it, that I'd like to see a "reboot" where they start producing period-piece or costume drama films in the manner of a Jane Austen treatment - or for a better example, as they did "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" in 2011. They could follow the whole story arc and have a nice long-running franchise. They could address the societal differences from then to now in subtle ways if they get good enough direction and acting. I'd also love to see how they would handle the effects (and I want to see his custom Bentley, as well as Felix's Studillac). Another production for Fallow Fields, I suppose.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

In other news, I found something rarer than a working typewriter in the bins the other day. An old-school Thermos bottle with an unbroken liner and the inner lid also.
I liked the color so for a buck fifty I went ahead and got it.

I'd never seen Polly Red Top before, I don't know how long they were made. I did find an interesting blog showing vintage ads, which had this 1954 ad for the product - at least it gives me a snapshot on the era if not the actual decade in which this was made. Some nice photography there as well.http://jonwilliamson.com/

Monday, November 30, 2015

I reached 50,000 words last night, the first time I've ever finished early I believe. On the other hand, I still need to wrap up the storyline. So I allowed myself a little time for a celebratory post before climbing that last hill.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

The National Bike Challenge is over (I did 1000 miles from April through September). Getting out for a ride nearly every day meant that while I produced a few typecasts (still rolled in platens), I didn't make time for posting them often. But today I have news to get me back into the habit.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

I just took delivery of a batch of EIGHT Ron Goulart books, seven of which I didn't currently have. I know this because I finally decided to start cataloguing my collections of three authors' books. Besides Goulart, I also watch for Fred Hoyle novels and I thought I had a full set of Ian Fleming's Bond books. Now thanks to the list, I know I need to reacquire "Thunderball" and "Live and Let Die" to re-complete the set. Can't think where they could have gone, but I do misplace things.

Ron Goulart is still alive and writing. He's even on facebook but I don't know if he wants fans as friends. I'd be a little hesitant about it, but what do I know?

p.s.: Now I feel the need to find a Joanna Russ book and see how I like it.

I have been typing on my bike - just not posting. I offer the following as proof. It's become laughably common for me to find an old typecast still in the typewriter when I open it up out on the trail.

So I heard back from them to pick up the typewriters and said no, those were a gift, if you want them. They did accept them, but I don't know what happened to them after.
Also I did manage to sell one more typewriter last weekend before pickup. The plastic Rocket (made in Brazil, I think), with no cover. I hope they enjoy it. I keep thinking I really should be posting galleries of these before deaccessioning.

Sunday, August 2, 2015

So, I've had a hellish month at work, in which the customer has not been timely or forthcoming with their changes and everyone downstream thinks *we* are holding out on them. I haven't had much left in the tank for blogging, but that doesn't mean my typewriters are neglected.

I'm not sure I mentioned it before, but I'm presenting at Oly Zine Fest on the topic of typewriters, as zine and other self-publishers are an important part of the typewriter resurgence. To that end, I participated in the Nearsighted Narwhal's 24 Hour Zine Challenge to produce a little booklet to both guide my talk and to give as a handout. I even left a few there to try to sell. Ossain Avila Cardenas there at the shop was very helpful in designing the cover for me. He has a good eye and knowledge of what moves in the shop.

As with last year, I brought typewriters for the other participants to use. I have an SM-7 there for sale anyway, to which I added the Royal HH, a 50's QDL, a 60's Script Aristocrat, the no-cover plastic Rocket, and a big Underwood 150, whose logo, you may recall, was used in a cafepress store (Thanks Richard, that's still one of my favorite mugs). The difference this year was they were all for sale. The Underwood and the QDL each sold for twenty bucks! Another participant (who seems also to be helping in the shop) also brought two typewriters - a Galaxie and a Selectric. I used the Selectric for part of my zine.

As mentioned before, I collect slide rules. Now that I have a variety of straight calculating styles, I've been emphasizing special-purpose rules. I have a couple for electronics, for example, and a couple of military ones for artillery calculations.
The other day I lucked into a bundled batch with several unusual rules:

This one will be of interest to my readers. I'm not sure how to use it yet, so feel free to weigh in with ideas.

An interesting specimen that's outlived its usefulness. I'm thinking it was thrown in with a set to keep them buying those bulbs. Eventually you used the settings that you habitually did and fixed it in the darkroom.

This is the one that caught my eye. Still not sure how to use it, but it's fun to speculate on.